CCA Documents

Coastal Concern Alliance (CCA) is an independent citizens’ group set up in 2006 to campaign for reform of the undemocratic Foreshore Act 1933 which governs construction at sea, and the introduction of coastal and marine planning to conserve and protect marine wildlife and coastal landscapes and seascapes. We are in favour of offshore renewable energy projects to help cut Ireland’s fossil fuel consumption provided such schemes are sensitively located in line with good international environmental practice. We have been lobbying government on the need to reform foreshore governance since our foundation.

In addition, we have made comprehensive submissions to numerous pertinent public consultations (see below). In the decade since 2006, we have seen the concerns we have raised about: i) the need for proper public consultation on offshore developments and ii) the adverse impact on landscape and marine wildlife of inappropriately sited offshore wind farms, become mainstream throughout the EU.

A main focus of CCA submissions in recent years has been the developer- led nature of the Offshore Renewable Energy Development Plan (OREDP) drafted by Minister Eamon Ryan in 2010 and adopted by Government in 2014. This Plan and its accompanying SEA/Environmental Report is a clear example of retrospective planning. It encompasses and endorses massive developments with hundreds of giant turbines permitted (1,600 MW ) and progressed (2000MW) in full view of the high amenity coasts of Wicklow, Dublin and Louth during the Celtic Tiger years under outdated legislation (Foreshore Act 1933), with no Plan, no Strategic Environmental Assessment, no public tender for sites, on the sole authority of the Minister for the Marine with no statutory involvement of local authorities, no public right of appeal and no independent professional assessment of visual impact on adjoining coastlines.

There is full knowledge at all levels of government of these legacy issues which must be addressed if Ireland’s seas are to be governed in a democratic manner in the public interest.

MID-TERM REVIEW OF THE OFFSHORE RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT PLAN 2014